For the 'Phantom of the Opera' West End cast, life begins at 40

After four fantastic decades, Andrew Lloyd Webber’s iconic musical is still shattering records. Now its stunning new cast are also breaking hearts.

Summary

• 'Phantom of the Opera' celebrates its 40th anniversary this month
• The anniversary cast includes Jordan Donica, Beatrice Penny-Touré, and Rhys Whitfield
• Sierra Boggess also returns to the show as Carlotta

Phantom of the Opera celebrates 40 years in London this month but what is most astonishing is that this birthday milestone looks to be added to many times over: this is one show that has no end in sight.

In honour of the occasion, the blockbuster Cameron Mackintosh production has welcomed a team of new cast members – youthful players all, who point the way towards the musical’s future. All have a previous relationship with the show — Jordan Donica, Beatrice Penny-Touré, and Rhys Whitfield have joined forces in the crucial triangular configuration of The Phantom, Christine, and Raoul, respectively, whilst the invaluable Sierra Boggess — no stranger either to the London stage or to this very show — has signed on as the diva-ish Carlotta.

“I don’t want to get too religious about it,” says Jordan Donica, the Broadway name now making his West End debut as The Phantom during this landmark anniversary season, “but this show is a lot of people’s religion and spirituality: it’s their comfort and peace, so to be a part of that just means everything to me.”

At the show’s 1986 opening night, no one could have guessed that Phantom would be the third British mega-musical from that decade (following Cats and just a year on from Les Misérables). It would go on to shatter theatrical records and, at present, is showing no signs of stopping.

“The future of this show is endless,” says Beatrice Penny-Touré, who, aged 27, has been connected to Phantom in one way or another for most of her professional life. She was in the ensemble straight out of ArtsEd drama school in 2021, doubling at the time as second cover for Christine before graduating several times over to the show’s leading female role. “I take any chance I’m offered to get back into that building,” she says with a laugh, referring to His Majesty’s Theatre, where she has signed on afresh as Christine.

What explains the appeal of a musical that long ago entered the zeitgeist as a cultural marker surpassing expectations? “Phantom speaks to different people in different ways,” says Penny-Touré, who recalls watching the 25th anniversary London production on film some while before she ever saw it live. (Upon being cast as Christine, the fast-rising performer was given a “show watch”, which allows performers in long-running productions to have a proper sense of what they are stepping into.)

“The music,” she continues, “speaks for itself and will never die out. It’s the most wonderful score.” Beyond that, she points to “so many layers that continue to speak to people about humanity, love, desire. Christine on paper is a perfect ingénue but she isn’t perfect in any way: she’s young and has a lot to learn about life, but she’s also a sexual person who is discovering things about herself and about the world: a lot of people relate to that on a very human level.”

Christine’s paramour, Raoul, is currently being played by Rhys Whitfield, fresh from the award-winning revival of Into The Woods in which he played another dashing swain, Rapunzel’s Prince. As with Penny-Touré, he is returning in Phantom to a part he has played before. “I think the secret to Andrew [Lloyd Webber’s] music is that these melodies feel inevitable, if you know what I mean. It’s as if they’ve always existed, and he’s just kind of found them: he’s the one who has brought this music to life and put it out there, so no wonder it feels inevitable.”

Whitfield first saw Phantom at the age of 14 during a 2008 school trip to the show from his home in Cambridge to London: Simon Bailey was Raoul at the time. “I literally just went on that trip because I fancied a girl who was also going on it, and I had no interest in what we were seeing. I wanted to be a musician – to be the next Paul McCartney – but that didn’t happen,” even if, he says with a grin, “there’s still time.”

What Whitfield discovered was the power of live theatre that soon came to define his life. “I just remember being there and thinking, ‘How is this happening?’ It was a Thursday for the guys on stage, but for me it was the start of a new chapter, and I think many people continue to have that experience with this show. There’s something about Phantom that takes the audience to a place where they have never gone.” How does it feel to now be one of those tasked with giving that sense of occasion to theatregoers? “I’m a different person now to where I was in 2021” – when he first played Raoul – “but it’s actually felt like a really seamless experience. The cast is fantastic, and we’re all just here trying to do the best show we can."

Phantom’s music is majestic, but so is a physical production conceived on such a scale that it’s difficult to imagine a show equalling it nowadays. As Whitfield puts it, “I’m sure I feel emboldened as Raoul because I get to wear this insane costume” – formal wear with gold braiding, and that’s just for starters – “whereas if I were wearing the jeans and t-shirt that Nate has on [referencing his West End gig in The Devil Wears Prada] I might just duck down and, I don’t know, make a grilled cheese sandwich.”

Aged 32, Donica is a onetime Raoul who is now taking on the musical’s title role. He is quick to acknowledge the show is “a classic piece of theatre in a way we don’t really see anymore. This piece delivers the escapist spectacle that everybody yearns for and that we don’t get these days – and I speak from the perspective of both a fan of the show and as someone who has done it in multiple ways.” The silken-voiced performer’s Broadway debut a decade ago was as Raoul, since which time he has received a Tony nomination for Camelot at Lincoln Center and took over from David Thaxton as Max on Broadway opposite Nicole Scherzinger in Sunset Boulevard. Standing six foot five inches, he cuts an imposing physical presence across all his roles.

As The Phantom, his luxuriant curly locks have been shorn and he arrives for the interview, a baseball cap covering his bald pate. (“I actually looked at the hair on the floor” – following the cut – “and have kept some of it,” he grins, as anyone so follicularly gifted might as well.)

Having read the gothic thriller by Gaston Leroux that is the musical’s source, Donica points to the enduring power of a show in which, he says, “love is available to everyone, even the murderer that The Phantom very much is. At the same time, he’s a reflection of the society in which he lives: combine that with music that really cuts to the core, and it’s all there [for a performer].”

Nor is Donica worried about the material ever seeming dated, as he settles into a West End run that will take him into the new year. “Phantom lives in the eternal ethereal space, you know? And what I love is that it ends on a question: Where did The Phantom go? Who was he? What happens with Christine and Raoul?” (Audiences who have seen the sequel Love Never Dies will get an answer to some of those queries, but Donica’s point remains.)

“The show’s not telling the audience what to think or what to believe,” says Donica. “It takes you on a journey right to the heart.”

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This article first appeared in the October 2026 issue of London Theatre Magazine.

Photo credit: the 40th anniversary cast of Phantom of the Opera. (Studio photography by Michael Wharley, styled by Britt Taylor)